Advantages and disadvantages of houses made of profiled timber

Recommendation points

• Profiled timber – production technology
• Pros and cons of profiled timber
• A house from a bar – construction technology
• Building the foundation
• Assembly of a log house
• Roofing
• Interior decoration
• At the end

In this article, we will talk about building a house from a profiled bar. Consider the production technology of timber, its positive and negative characteristics. We will discuss the stages of construction, the cost and operating conditions of houses made of profiled timber.

Owning your own dacha somewhere outside the city, away from the noise of the city and obvious problems with the environment is a dream, without any doubt, of every city dweller. Moreover, it should not be a lopsided shack with places of a leaky roof and cracks in the walls, but a real house, with all the attributes of a comfortable stay. And every city dweller can realize his dream of a country vacation in his own comfortable dacha, paying attention to houses made of timber – the most natural material.

Profiled timber – production technology

The cellular structure of wood is heterogeneous – in the middle of the trunk it is denser, contains a large amount of resin (in conifers) or tannins (in deciduous trees). Sap flow in the core of a tree trunk is completely absent, therefore it is more durable. Therefore, the profiled timber is made only from the heart, more durable part of the wood..

A wooden beam is usually given the following transverse profile: the outer side (facing the street) in the form of a semi-oval or flat, with or without bevels removed; the inside is straight; on the top and bottom sides, spikes and grooves are cut for the subsequent groove-thorn connection.

Let’s consider how the profiled timber is made. The starting material for its creation is a pine edged timber growing in the northern regions of Russia – such wood is denser and stronger, contains less moisture. The edged beam is subject to strict input control – the section is strictly rectangular, there should be no deviations in the corners and cutting lines. Accordingly, the timber affected by insects and fungus is completely rejected..

Before subjecting the edged beam to profiling, it is kept for 3-5 months in naturally dried warehouses or placed in forced drying chambers. The moisture content of the timber before profiling should not exceed 22%.

Profiling is carried out on four-sided woodworking machines with at least six spindles, the minimum section of the billet bar is 250×240 mm. During processing on the machine, the edged timber acquires a strictly calculated shape or profile, and each of the four processed surfaces acquires exceptional smoothness.

At domestic enterprises, profiled timber is most often produced with a section of 95×95, 95×145, 145×145, 145×195 and 195×195 mm, with a length of 6000 mm. To build the outer walls of a house or a bath from a bar, a section of at least 145×145 mm is used, a bar of a smaller section goes to the inner partitions.

Pros and cons of profiled timber

Positive characteristics:

• factory production of a profile of a bar, which allows you to completely exclude any modification of it at the installation site;
• the absence of gaps between adjacent elements during the installation of walls, their reliable connection, which ensures the protection of the outer (street) side of the walls from the effects of precipitation without additional external finishing;
• short terms of building construction, no more than one to two months;
• a heavy foundation is not required for a building made of timber (depending on the structure of the building) – a strip and even a columnar one will be quite enough;
• the shrinkage of a building made of profiled timber is much less than that of buildings made of non-profiled wooden materials;
• lower, in comparison with profiled glued beams and rounded logs, cost – about 10,000 rubles. per cubic meter;
• the profiling of the timber is carried out only in the factory, that is, at the construction site of the building, no additional adjustment is required;
• high aesthetics of houses from a bar. In the case of using the building as a summer cottage in the warm season, facade finishing will not be required.

Negative characteristics:

• subject to the negative effects of atmospheric phenomena, combustible. Impregnation with special agents is required to increase the fire and bio-protective properties;
• natural moisture leads to cracking during shrinkage during the warm season. It is better to build a house from a bar that has been subjected to chamber drying with a decrease in humidity to 20% and below;
• the thickness of the walls made of profiled timber is insufficient for its operation in the cold season – additional insulation of the walls from the outside is required;
• after the construction of a house from a bar, any work on its redevelopment or superstructure is impossible.

It should be noted separately that fire retardants and biocides, which the timber is impregnated with in order to increase its operational characteristics, are harmful to humans only at the time of processing – after complete drying, the special means do not in any way affect the human body and pets.

A house from a bar – construction technology

According to ready-made working drawings, construction work takes place in five stages: foundation work; installation of the base of the house on the foundation; assembly of external walls and internal partitions; roof erection – rafters, lathing and roofing; interior decoration.

Building the foundation

In terms of timing, this is the longest stage in the construction of a house from a bar. If the building does not have any underground premises and, provided that local soils are not permeable, then a columnar foundation is laid – to a freezing depth (usually more than 1.5 m), with a 3 m step between the pillars made of brick or concrete, it is poured under the pillars 200 mm gravel-sand pad. The foundation pillars are interconnected by a wall-fence made of brick, rubble stone or concrete. Its width is 100-200 mm, the depth of laying in the ground: 200-300 mm. Along the perimeter of the intake, on each side of the house, air vents are made for ventilation of the underground, in the summer they are kept open, they are tightly plugged in the winter. Building a strip foundation will take more time and more money, but it is more stable on heaving soils. We discussed the procedure for arranging the strip foundation in the article: “Strip foundation: step by step instructions”.

Assembly of a log house

At the end of the foundation work, the house is strapped – lower crowns and supports for partitions made of timber, as well as joists for flooring, are placed on the foundation. Then the assembly of the external walls begins, the timber that forms them is connected to each other according to the “groove-thorn” principle and with the help of wooden dowels, a groove seal made of jute or flax fibers is placed between the timber.

During the assembly process, openings are formed for doors and windows. After the walls have been erected, further terms of work depend on what kind of profiled timber is used – natural or chamber drying. In the first case, you will need to pause in construction work for about six months to shrink the exposed log house. The moisture content of naturally dried timber is about 22–30%, chamber moisture – 12–20%, that is, a frame made of naturally dried timber will settle by about 7–10%, dried in a chamber – by 3%. If you do not allocate time for shrinkage and completely finish the building, then displacements in window and door openings, as well as in individual sections of mating walls and partitions, are inevitable. Construction work using chamber-dried profiled timber does not require a break for the shrinkage of the log house, which allows the construction to be completed in a short time.

Roofing

On the ground, the elements of the truss structure are being assembled, the gables are sheathed with clapboard – the finished roofing elements are installed on the frame. Next, a waterproofing film is laid on the rafter structure, the sheathing is attached with a step corresponding to a certain roof covering, and the roof is laid.

Interior decoration

At this final stage, the installation of internal partitions, installation of window frames and door frames is carried out. A rough floor and ceiling flooring is mounted, insulation is laid on top, then the floor and ceiling are finished with a topcoat. Before finishing the ceiling and floor, communication networks are laid – electrics, water supply, sewerage and, if necessary, heating.

At the end

The cost of a country house with an attic floor made of profiled timber, measuring 6×6 meters, will be about 380,000 rubles. – this price includes construction and finishing materials, as manufacturers usually say, in the “basic configuration”. In other words, if some finishing materials do not suit you, then you will have to pay extra. Delivery is not included in the basic cost and is paid additionally – on average, 70 rubles per kilometer. Installation work is also included in the price of the building. By the way, panel houses of the same size will cost the future owners cheaper – about 290,000 rubles.

In addition to wooden dowels, it is allowed to install walls from a bar on metal dowels on the condition that they do not protrude from the walls both from the outside and from the inside, that is, it is required to drown the metal dowels into the bar and reliably isolate from moisture, otherwise they will rust. The advantage of metal dowels is the ability to level the walls after seasonal foundation displacements.

A house made of timber without additional insulation of external walls can be comfortably used only in the warm season – with the onset of cold weather it will not be warm enough, and an increase in the number of radiators in the heating system will not help much, and heating costs will be too high. The optimal solution is to lay basalt insulation along the outer walls with their subsequent overlap with clapboard or siding.

The thermal conductivity of walls made of wooden beams depends on the climatic zone in which the pine trees grew – the farther north, the greater the density of its structure.

The service life of houses made of timber will be at least 50 years, but only if the building is taken care of – a waterproof roof, periodic treatment of the walls with antiseptic drugs and fire retardants. The condition of the roof must be checked in autumn and spring, both from the inside (if possible) and from the outside. If the roof covering is made of metal, watch out for damage to the paint layer – exposure of the metal base will lead to corrosion, that is, any scratches must be painted over. In addition, drainage should be cleaned at least twice a year..

To protect the foundation and subfloor from moisture, keep an eye on the condition of the blind area around the building perimeter, do not plant green spaces that require regular watering near the building. Closer to the spring snowmelt, the owners need to visit their country house from a bar – remove snow from the roof, throwing it at least one and a half meters from the walls in bulk, without the formation of snowdrifts.

To avoid the penetration of mice and rats into the underground, and birds into the attic (attic), it is necessary to close the air vents with a lattice and, when leaving the house for a long time, check the reliability of closing the window sashes.

Do not rush to place an order for the construction of a profiled bar, be it a summer cottage or a turnkey bath, first make sure of the professionalism of the performers – evaluate their already built houses, talk to the owners.